Ministers cap foreign troop numbers

Friday 30 January 2009 00:01 BST

The Government is to cap the number of foreign nationals serving in three Army units, it has been disclosed.

Defence Minister Kevan Jones confirmed in the Commons a BBC report that a 15% limit was being imposed on the Royal Logistics Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps and Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.

Mr Jones told MPs he was "angry" that the details had been obtained by the Radio 4 PM programme before they had been announced officially to Parliament.

The move comes amid concern about the growing reliance of the forces on foreign recruits who reportedly now account for 7% of the Army's total strength, not including the Gurkhas.

The PM programme reported that the logistics and nursing corps were approaching the new 15% ceiling while the dental corps was said to have already passed it.

The former head of the Army, General Sir Mike Jackson, said that some limit was now necessary.

"It would be in my mind a nonsense not to have some sort of ceiling," he told PM.

"One has got to come to a judgment as to what is appropriate, what is right, was the British Army can properly absorb without losing its own British identity and ethos."

Professor Michael Clarke, the director of the Royal United Services Institute military think-tank, said it made sense to focus on technical areas like logistics and medicine which could be vulnerable to disruption if they became over-reliant on foreigners.